GREAT thread! My friend and I are making the drive from Pittsburgh for the december 3rd game. We are hitting DC on the 1st for the game, then driving down. We have our tickets and hotel booked. Tickets are section 309, row D. Anyone have any comments about the seats at all? Hotel is Red Roof Raleigh Southwest--Ncsu. Didn't really care where we were staying, the cheaper the better for us.

Well anyway the reason for this post...We are coming in friday and leaving sunday early. We will be looking for a place to eat/drink friday night for sure and probably the same saturday. Any suggestions? Any "hockey" bars around town? Also saturday afternoon is there anything worth seeing around the area or anything like that?

That hotel is in kind of a suburban shopping center area, but it's right off the I-440 beltline so it will be a real quick hop over to the arena.

I would look through the first page of this thread and see if anything catches your eye for things to do. It's pretty comprehensive.

Getting barbecue is a requirement at some point. My recommendation would be either Cooper's downtown (http://www.clydecoopersbbq.com/) which is your more classic, cheap, hole-in-the-wall barbecue joint (over 70 years old), or The Pit (http://www.thepit-raleigh.com/), which is bizarrely upscale and a little pricier for a barbecue restaurant, but at least last time I went there (a while back) was delicious.

GREAT thread! My friend and I are making the drive from Pittsburgh for the december 3rd game. We are hitting DC on the 1st for the game, then driving down. We have our tickets and hotel booked. Tickets are section 309, row D. Anyone have any comments about the seats at all? Hotel is Red Roof Raleigh Southwest--Ncsu. Didn't really care where we were staying, the cheaper the better for us.

Well anyway the reason for this post...We are coming in friday and leaving sunday early. We will be looking for a place to eat/drink friday night for sure and probably the same saturday. Any suggestions? Any "hockey" bars around town? Also saturday afternoon is there anything worth seeing around the area or anything like that?

Thanks guys!

Your seats should be fine - there really isn't a bad seat at the RBC Center. What seats are "limited view" are made limited only by clear glass partitions. I'm not a huge fan of the corners but that's not because of any particular problem with those sections.

As for places to eat/drink Friday night, be sure to check the first page - it's as up to date as possible but as Anton Cooper points out, eating of barbeque somewhere is a requirement. Clyde Cooper's and The Pit are both solid choices. If it makes much of a difference to you, The Pit has been featured on Man vs. Food, although not in a challenge. It's also been featured on Throwdown with Bobby Flay, although pitmaster Ed Mitchell is no longer there. Having had both I prefer The Pit to Cooper's but it is oddly upscale for a barbeque joint.

As for Saturday and things to do, I would say it depends on what you like to do. The NC Museum of Art just opened a Rembrandt exhibition this week and the NC Museum of History just opened a new permanent exhibit on North Carolina and its inhabitants throughout history called "The Story of North Carolina." If you like the outdoors there's plenty of parks and greenways to explore.

I'd also recommend visiting a microbrewery or two, particularly Fullsteam in Durham (which is in walking distance of the old Durham Athletic Park where Bull Durham was filmed), Big Boss in Raleigh, or Aviator in Fuquay-Varina. Carolina Brewing Company in Holly Springs also does a free tour starting at 1:00 PM and they give free beer with that too. It's also close enough to Aviator that you could, in theory, take the tour, go to Fuquay to try out Aviator and their smokehouse (although their barbeque isn't as good as Coopers or The Pit), have a beer or two there, then make it to the game. Although I'd advise you stay away from their Devil's Tramping Ground if you do that, since it's pretty high gravity.

If wine is more your taste, head out to Chatham Hill Winery near the airport or any of the Eno River/Chatham County wineries (www.visitncwine.com for more info). Also if you or anybody you're traveling with is a shopper, there's a Tanger Outlets in Mebane about 45 minutes away.

Which Red Roof are you staying in - is that the one on S. Saunders in Raleigh or the one on Walnut St. in Cary?

Would like to nominate Ashworth's drugstore in Cary as a place to add under Restaurants. Though it's a lunch counter, some of the best hot dogs you'll ever have are made here. Plus it's kind of a cool piece of history, been around since the 1950's.

Your seats should be fine - there really isn't a bad seat at the RBC Center. What seats are "limited view" are made limited only by clear glass partitions. I'm not a huge fan of the corners but that's not because of any particular problem with those sections.

As for places to eat/drink Friday night, be sure to check the first page - it's as up to date as possible but as Anton Cooper points out, eating of barbeque somewhere is a requirement. Clyde Cooper's and The Pit are both solid choices. If it makes much of a difference to you, The Pit has been featured on Man vs. Food, although not in a challenge. It's also been featured on Throwdown with Bobby Flay, although pitmaster Ed Mitchell is no longer there. Having had both I prefer The Pit to Cooper's but it is oddly upscale for a barbeque joint.

As for Saturday and things to do, I would say it depends on what you like to do. The NC Museum of Art just opened a Rembrandt exhibition this week and the NC Museum of History just opened a new permanent exhibit on North Carolina and its inhabitants throughout history called "The Story of North Carolina." If you like the outdoors there's plenty of parks and greenways to explore.

I'd also recommend visiting a microbrewery or two, particularly Fullsteam in Durham (which is in walking distance of the old Durham Athletic Park where Bull Durham was filmed), Big Boss in Raleigh, or Aviator in Fuquay-Varina. Carolina Brewing Company in Holly Springs also does a free tour starting at 1:00 PM and they give free beer with that too. It's also close enough to Aviator that you could, in theory, take the tour, go to Fuquay to try out Aviator and their smokehouse (although their barbeque isn't as good as Coopers or The Pit), have a beer or two there, then make it to the game. Although I'd advise you stay away from their Devil's Tramping Ground if you do that, since it's pretty high gravity.

If wine is more your taste, head out to Chatham Hill Winery near the airport or any of the Eno River/Chatham County wineries (www.visitncwine.com for more info). Also if you or anybody you're traveling with is a shopper, there's a Tanger Outlets in Mebane about 45 minutes away.

Which Red Roof are you staying in - is that the one on S. Saunders in Raleigh or the one on Walnut St. in Cary?

Thanks for the reply. I think we will definitely be going to the Cooper place for some BBQ. We are staying at the red roof in Cary. BTW are there cab services around town? Not sure how much we plan on drinking, and just wondering the situation for that.

To add another name into the mix - Green Taxi seems to be a pretty reputable company. www.greentaxi.biz or 919-835-3545. There's also RDU Taxi, although I believe they only go to/from the airport. In general I'd stick with Cardinal Cab or Green Taxi to get around town - there's a host of other small companies that seem to be little more than semi-legit gypsy cabs.

To add another name into the mix - Green Taxi seems to be a pretty reputable company. www.greentaxi.biz or 919-835-3545. There's also RDU Taxi, although I believe they only go to/from the airport. In general I'd stick with Cardinal Cab or Green Taxi to get around town - there's a host of other small companies that seem to be little more than semi-legit gypsy cabs.

Mrs. GP and I just got back from Draft - it's a little pricey (two burgers and two pints were $37.71 with tax) and most of their specialty burgers are $12-$15.00. Still the burgers were amazingly good and they emphasize local ingredients - beef is from Ayden, NC and most the cheeses are from NC as well as are most of their beers. I had a Wolfpack burger (two patties, barbeque sauce, pepperjack cheese, and onion straws) while Mrs. GP had their Southern Lovin' burger (fried green tomatoes, goat cheese, bacon, and balsamic). My only complaint is that the place is sensory overload. Every booth has a TV and there are TVs all over the place. Easy to get distracted! Or great place to make sure you can watch the game!

Coming down today for the game tomorrow, and super excited to check out a lot of the great suggestions in this thread!

We bought two sets of tickets, as friends who are from the area will likely be joining us for the night. Both in the balcony, one set of tickets is listed as seats 1 & 2...it's unclear from the arena map if those are aisle seats or up against a wall. Any idea if balcony sections DON'T have aisles on both ends? If we were able to score aisle seats, we're totally giving the other pair to our friends.

I don't think any seats are against a wall; I believe there are stairs on each side of every row. I'm not 100% confident about that, though.

I think there are a few rows in some sections where one side is an aisle and one side is up against a wall (from the entrance/exit to the concourse) but those tend to be lower rows. I'm not 100% sure which rows/sections have this and which don't.

My gf and I will be coming down for the Caps-Canes game this upcoming friday. Read through most of the thread again, but have a quick question. Is there anything in the arena concourse that is unique? It can be food, displays, etc. Verizon center is pretty bland, but every other arena i've been to has some cool things.

Unfortunately I don't think we'll have time to explore the surrounding city as we are taking a bus trip and it seems like we will be getting there with not much time to spare before the game.